We are back in business and all is well right now with GANNET2. Yesterday started with a tow when Jerry showed up to get us to his shop.
Jerry works slowly steadily and precisely. He studies the problem in that way they say carpenters should: measure twice and cut once. The work started at noon.
Rusty found his quiet spot and with a yawn went peacefully to sleep.
I was hopping around watching the new radiator fit into its slot. It took eight days to get here from the European warehouse and we had no issues with customs. The radiator came with four gallons of radiator fluid Jerry ordered from the Jeep dealer. The cost for parts was $450.
When we got stuck in Belize two years ago we were getting a tug out of the mud when the towline snapped the hitch on the truck and it flew back and wrecked our radiator. I think that installation left out two critical bolts ( highlighted below) because when we inspected the broken radiator this time there was some play. My thinking is the rough roads we’ve driven combined with the movement allowed by the absent bolts, caused the plastic to split. I’m hoping Jerry’s new bolts will prevent that happening again.
And the a/c guy did a very careful job recharging our system. We both think the cold blows colder and the hot blows hotter than before. We’re happy.
The labor cost $400 for everything. Excellent service in our book and all done in nine days. Desert Garage did us proud. They are also keeping an eye on us and telling me to take a test run to make sure it’s working right. We plan to take a drive to lunch and come back to give the system time to settle in.
There’s a lot of lonely desert ahead of us before we get to Peru. Rusty is ready.
Final checks.
Temperature gauge where it should be. We operate the van and our lives on US measurements to keep it simple for us. I change the oil every 5,000 miles.
Then we went to the waterfront after shopping at Unimarc the biggest grocery in town. We were down to barebones groceries after nine days in the campground.
Layne wanted to have dinner where we’d eaten with Konstantin and Julia two weeks ago.
Fish dinner for dinner two with lots of left overs.
We closed the restaurant and walked home to a sleepy dog.
And we decided it was too late to go for a test ride so we went to sleep.
3 comments:
Congrats!
Michael, seeing the picutes of the radiator installation reminded me of something. A few years ago, I was replacing the rotten plywood core in a boat locker lid...someone recommended I look up Nomex honeycomb. It did the job perfectly as a core material. Where it applies to you is that I noticed when shopping that car parts places like Summit Racing also sell the stuff. I learned that some hot-rodders place a sheet of this nomex in front of their high dollar radiators as a shield from debris (rocks, maybe a flying trailer hitch). The objective is that it will cushion the blow and maybe avoid damaging the radiator, but also let's plenty of air thru with the honeycomb design. Nomex I believe is a trademark name of Dupont, but I am sure a simple google search will get you going.
Yay! Good to hear! Safe travels
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